The 25 Best Burgers in Seattle

Oh, thank you, Earl of Sandwich, the first man to put meat between slices of bread. And thank you, too, people of Hamburg, Germany, who, legend has it, made a steak of ground meat and called it a hamburger. That was 300 years ago, give or take. Since then, the splendid taste of a salty-meaty patty, with pickles, lettuce and onions on a sesame seed bun, has become an icon of Americana, more American than apple pie.

The hamburger is a taste we never tire of, and one that local chefs can’t help tinkering with. So for our celebration of all the best burgers in Seattle, we set up some “ground rules”: Patties must be made of ground meat (chicken breasts don’t count, Californians) and they must be served on a bun (salad doesn’t count, carbophobes).